Thailand

Introducing withlocals.com, a travel website that allows you to sightsee, shop and eat like a local and learn all the city secrets of your family travel destination. If you’ve ever found yourself in a foreign city inside another international chain restaurant, you’ll be familiar with the frustration of feeling like you aren’t really accessing the country’s authentic culture beyond the tourist trail. Withlocals is a travel website that allows you stop being a tourist and start experiencing life like a local with their comprehensive hook up service that allows you to meet a local who can show you around and give you their insider travel tips.

Traveling with kids doesn’t have to mean they are always eating chicken nuggets and fries. Nor should what your kids eat stop you from venturing to developing countries further afield. Even with kids on the road, you can still sample hawker and street fare as the locals do – on a small stool on the roadside – rather than feeling restricted to the hotel buffet. As proof, here are the suitcases&strollers family travel tips for 10 Asian street foods the kids will love.

Information about the prevalence of rabies in Asia for families traveling with kids. Rabies is not a disease you commonly hear about or associate with family travel with kids, but it is something you should be keeping on your radar. In fact, children are at higher risk of contracting rabies as they are attracted to animals and less likely to be able to avoid scratches and bites from affected animals. For anyone traveling to Asia with kids including destinations like Bali, Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji or the Philippines, here are some travel tips from International Medical Clinic in Singapore for how to avoid rabies coming into contact with your family.

Insider's city guide to Bangkok with kids. Thailand with kids is one of the best family holiday destinations in the world but there is so much more to it than just the beautiful beaches. The capital Bangkok with kids is a sensory overload – humid tropical weather, noise and hustle and bustle. With its combination of emerging first world meets traditional Southeast Asia, this makes it the perfect family holiday destination for the intrepid family, says Cordelia Newlin de Rojas of blog Multilingual Mama. She tells suitcases&strollers her city secrets to exploring Bangkok with kids (she has two daughters Pea, 6, and Plum, 4).

When should you send kids on school holiday camps? And how do you know when kids are really ready to travel on their own? Summer camp organisers – Merritt Gurley (Camp Director), Dave Milne (Founder of The Wild Planet) and Toby Bell (Marketing Manager of The Wild Planet) – have come together to host Thailand Summer Camps in Khao Yai in Thailand for kids at the end of June. They gave suitcases&strollers their advice on independent travel for kids and how and when to start getting your child camp ready.

Family holiday destinations should always involve LEGO, says our little friend Levi Cuthbert. At the tender age of 5, Levi is something of a jetsetter travelling regularly to places like Bali, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand and all over Australia with his parents and sister Zoey (3). This precocious preschooler tells suitcases&strollers about his favourite family friendly holidays and what made them so great (hint: coloured bricks may have been involved).

Active holidays for families are a great way to encourage kids to embrace health and fitness while still having fun. But this doesn’t mean you need to climb a mountain or do extreme sports. Instead, plan your next family vacation around a fun run for kids. Exercise while travelling can make an event seem more exciting or interesting than just doing it at home and gives a chance for that all important family bonding time that happens in foreign environments. Here are some of the most exciting fun runs for kids in Asia and Australia in 2015.

Family holiday destinations that involve sun, sand, beach and lots of laughs are the best, says Josie Burke (11). She regularly travels three or four times a year to places such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia, sometimes with her siblings Chloe (9) and Hugh (6) and sometimes independently on school trips. She gives suitcases&strollers her candid opinion on the best (and worst) bits of family travel with kids.

Which are the essential travel vaccinations you need for visiting countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand with kids? Dr. Michael Rodger of International Medical Clinic (IMC) gives suitcases&strollers his travel tips for the essential list of travel vaccinations for Southeast Asia and why you need them if you are traveling with kids.

Erin Bender of Travel With Bender has been travelling the world with her husband, Josh Bender, and two children Mia (5) and Caius (4) since May 2012. They have been all over North America, Europe and Southeast Asia with kids from Cancun to Aqaba, Cape Canaveral to Manila. Along the way they’ve experienced everything from petting tigers to eating their way around Greece (where they are now) and they’ve logged it all on their blog. Erin tells suitcases&strollers what she and her kids love about being permanent travellers (and it’s not quite so adventurous or unachievable as you’d think).

Sean Pizel (7) lives with his brothers Alex (10) and Joshua (5) in Singapore. The family travels multiple times a year and makes a particular effort to organise staycations where they rent a hotel on the island and all bunk in together for the weekend – a fun way to do a quick family holiday. He tells suitcases&strollers about travelling to places like Vietnam, Australia and Malaysia with kids…from a child’s perspective.

Ollie Brown (6) is a British expatriate living in Singapore with his parents and little sister, Lottie (5). As well as being a keen rugby player and very good at LEGO, he has done quite a bit of travel around Europe and Asia and the family usually vacay internationally three to four times a year. For him, the greatest travel tip for successfully traveling with kids is for the family to spend time together, simple as that. He tells suitcases&strollers about his favourite family holiday memories (with a little help from his mother).

Boutique hotel website Mr & Mrs Smith has long been the
go-to resource for trendy getaways. But no longer is the brand just about
couples’ retreats. This year they are going global with their new website Smith & Family providing choice
child-friendly accommodations for family holidays. Founder Tamara Lohan and mother to Tom (6) and Alexandra (4) gives suitcases&strollers her personal
recommendations for the best places to stay and travel with kids all over the
world.

Will it be lazy massages
while the kids play on the sand on a beach in Phuket? Or do you prefer
sundowner drinks at a trendy bar in Bali? Or is Krabi you ultimate family
holiday destination? It’s up to the winner of our competition to decide whether
they prefer to jet set to Holiday Inn Resort Baruna Bali, Holiday Inn Resort Phuket Patong or Holiday Inn Resort Krabi for the best way to travel with kids – absolutely free. Here are the lucky finalists for the
fabulous suitcases&strollers
competition.

It’s
your decision. Bali, Phuket or Krabi – suitcases&strollers
is giving away a fabulous holiday for one super lucky family. All you have to
do is decide which delicious deluxe destination you want to indulge in. *THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED*

She has been on our
television screens for 12 years so it’s hard to believe she is still only 15
years old. Indeed, since her crocodile-loving father, Steve Irwin, made her
famous at the age of 3, Bindi Irwin has been travelling the globe educating
kids about conservation and wildlife all over the world. She tells suitcases&strollers about her
favourites of the 26 countries she’s visited and why travel has been her
defining life experience.

Marathons, triathlons, ironman
competitions – these might not seem like events around which to build a family
holiday. But they can actually make for a different, fun and educational way to
travel with kids says Mike Pizel, dad to Alex (9), Sean (7) and Joshua (4). Mike has competed in multiple competitive races with his wife, Jo, all over
the world and they’ve taken their kids to many of them. He tells suitcases&strollers how to get
ready, set, go! and exercise while travelling by doing fun runs with kids.

The audience favourite
of Masterchef Australia series 4 not
only embraces multiple cultures in the kitchen – she travels with her
kids Alex (10) and Andre (8) regularly and tries to take them on an overseas holiday at
least once a year. Audra Morrice chats to suitcases&strollers about her favourite family holidays and shares some tips on introducing foreign foods to kids who are fussy
little eaters.

Hill tribes, outdoor adventure activities and a historic old town – there is so much to see and do in Thailand’s north. If you’re bored of the beach and want a jungle adventure, Chiang Mai with kids makes the perfect family holiday destination and is an exotic and interesting place to travel with kids. For a family holiday destination that's a little unexpected and adventurous, Chiang Mai is one great way to see Thailand with kids.

Thailand is one of the best places to go in Southeast Asia for a seaside holiday. The beaches are often spectacular and prettier than those in Malaysia, the flights are easier to access than those in the Philippines and their tourism services and warm culture beat anything in Indonesia (with the exception of Bali). But how do you know which beach is best for you to plan a family holiday? Here is the lowdown of the best and worst of the beaches in Thailand when you're travelling with kids.